while visiting indonesia, thailand and the philippines in october, i was reminded of the economic vitality of southeast asia and the fact that the ten countries comprising asean represent now the fourth largest export market of the united states. these countries are center stage to the circumstances with china. we must stand firm with our friends throughout asia and actively pursuit prospects for free trade and open sea lanes and other policies that will strengthen america's economic growth. more broadly, we face the specter of global resource constraints, especially deficiencies of energy and food that can stimulate conflict and deepen poverty. we have made startling gains in domestic energy production but we remain highly vulnerable still to our dependency on oil. and perhaps equally important, even if we are able to produce more energy at home, we cannot isolate ourselves from energy-driven shocks to the global economy. in other words, we have to cooperate with other nations in improving the global system of manufacturing and moving energy supplies. currently, a key to this is helping t